Apigee is hooking up SAP to drive efficiencies for SAP HANA customers. Apigee, a acceleration platform developer, has inked an OEM and reseller agreement with SAP.

Under the terms of the deal, SAP will deliver an application programming interface (API) management app built on the Apigee Edge digital acceleration platform. Dubbed the SAP API Management application, developers can use the technology as a solution on SAP HANA Cloud Platform or an as on-premise solution.

“Businesses are increasingly recognizing APIs as a key ingredient to participate in the digital economy,” said Björn Goerke, SAP Executive Vice President and Corporate Officer of SAP Product & Innovation Technology.

Accelerating Digital Transformation

What exactly does Apigee Edge bring to SAP’s table -- and more importantly to SAP’s customers? The company aims to help businesses build end-to-end and digital services using the building blocks of the connected world: APIs, apps and data. And Apigee claims it helps companies do that more quickly.

More specifically, the company promises enterprises using Apigee Edge can “transform” backend services into consumable APIs securely -- and use analytics to gain deeper visibility across the digital value chain. Because Apigee was built from the ground up to meet the demands of modern digital business, it supports secure scaling of billions of APIs.

Goerke sees the partnership as a strong example of how the SAP HANA platform and its ecosystem of partners can help customers prepare for the digital future. He sees value creation when customers use the SAP API Management application to leverage the digital assets and make them “consumable by their customers and the larger ecosystem.”

Chet Kapoor, CEO of Apigee, agreed. He said, “This agreement will facilitate the adoption of APIs and help accelerate the digital transformation of businesses worldwide.”

Critical Importance of APIs

We caught up with Charles King, principal analyst at Pund-IT, to get his take on the deal. He told is the partnership allows SAP to leverage the Apigee Edge API Management platform to benefit its developer partners and end customers.

“The deal highlights the critical importance of APIs to developers, and means to help those who are building apps that use SAP's backend platforms be maximally efficient and productive. In addition, working with a well-established player like Apigee should address concerns among SAP's client base about how and by who their SAP systems are being accessed,” King said.

“Finally, by delivering the new product as a cloud service based on SAP HANA, the company could pique the interest of developers who might decide to explore using HANA as a platform for future apps and services,” he added.